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With the priority of poverty reduction and with accelerating change in many dimensions, up-to-date and realistically informed perceptions of the lives and conditions of people living in poverty have come to matter more than ever. At the same time, new pressures and incentives increasingly trap decision-makers in headquarters and capital cities, reinforcing earlier (1983) analysis of the attraction of urban 'cores' and the neglect of rural 'peripheries'. These trends make decision-makers' learning about poverty and from people living in poverty rarer and ever more important. One common means has been rural development tourism, the phenomenon of the brief rural visit from an urban centre. In 1983, six biases of such visits - spatial, project, person, seasonal, diplomatic and professional - against seeing, meeting and learning from the poorer people, were identified and described. Security can now be added as a seventh. Much can be done to offset the biases. The solution is to make more visits, not fewer, and to enjoy doing them better.

In addition, new and promising approaches have been pioneered for experiential, direct learning, face-to-face with poor and marginalised people. Examples are: UNHCR's annual participatory assessments by staff; SDC's 'views of the poor' participatory research in Tanzania; and various forms of immersion, most recently those being convened and organised by ActionAid International. In many immersions, outsiders become guests for a few days and nights, and live, experience and learn in a community. The question now is not how an organisation can afford the time and other resources for immersions for its staff. It is how, if it is seriously pro-poor, it can possibly not do so. This paper is a challenge to development actors to practice a responsible pro-poor professionalism; to be pioneers and champions, seizing and making space for themselves and others to offset the biases and traps of headquarters and capital cities; and to have the vision and guts to seek out direct experiential learning and so to be in touch and up-to-date with the realities of the people living in poverty whom they seek to serve.

This article looks at the experiences of the Social Enterprise Development Foundation of West Africa (SEND Foundation) in building the capacity of civil society groups and local government officials in resource-poor northern Ghana. The article uses these experiences as a case study to explore how the Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy (GPRS) engages pro-poor and grassroots civil society organisations in facilitating participatory economic development in their local communities. The article has a two-fold focus on capacity building: increasing knowledge and understanding of the GPRS with civil society, and developing participatory monitoring and evaluation skills. The focus is on the Ghana HIPC Watch, which is a pilot project that aims to be a mechanism through which civil society organisations can engage in policy monitoring and evaluation. The central concerns of equity and accountability, particularly in terms of gender, emerged as important issues.

This article focuses on the Poverty Eradication Action Plan (PEAP), which is a national development strategy of the Ugandan government that has recently undergone its second revision. The revision process involves government, donors, civil society, the private sector and poor-people. This article offers a description of the mechanisms of the PEAP and poverty trends in Uganda, and introduces two themed articles about monitoring, evaluation and implementation of the PEAP process (by the same authors). The first looks at these issues from a civil society perspective (Isooba); the second form a government perspective (Ssewakiryanga).

This article explores links between the social unrest in Bolivia in October 2003 and the processes involved in the implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the Poverty reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP). The article suggests that the participation of civil society organisations has been limited and ineffective in these processes for a number of reasons. The author analyses the role that civil society has played in monitoring and implementing the PRSP, focusing on how the Grupo Nacional de Trabajo para la Participacion (GNTP) has worked with the government, NGOs and other civil society organisations. Specifically, the author looks at one case of successful peopleÆs participation in Vallegrande and concludes by drawing out lessons learnt from the Bolivian experience. These include: bottlenecks for peopleÆs participation can in part be overcome by strengthening networks and learning communities; key factors enabling peopleÆs participation in PRSP processes include government openness to participatory processes, access to information, organisational capacity within civil society organisation and commitment to participatory processes; and the role that South-South exchanges can have in strengthening learning communities.

The short article describes some indicators for practitioners to use when talking about participatory monitoring and evaluation of poverty reduction strategies. These indicators were developed to assess the performance of the government in Ghana in the use of Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) funds. In this case, the initiative worked through district HIPC monitoring committees made up civil society and community representatives. The broad categories of the indicators developed include good governance, accountability and equity.

This is a collection of newsletters from ActionAid Kenya, Western region. The newsletters are designed to share learning tools and ideas to increase learning, sharing and documentation within the region, and to provide an avenue for sharing experiences with the rest of ActionAid Kenya. Mwangaza is Kiswahili for illumination. Some regular features of the newsletter include: working with community-based organisations; gender perspectives; HIV/AIDS perspectives; transparency, accountability and effective management; research perspectives; and news and updates.

This sourcebook forms part of a wider initiative to promote easy access to systematized information on field-tested participatory research and development concepts and practices. The sourcebook aims to identify and consolidate tested practices and concepts relevant to managing natural resources for agriculture and rural livelihood. The primary audience for the sourcebook are field-based research practitioners in developing countries. The sourcebook is divided into 3 volumes: Understanding, enabling and doing participatory research and development. Volume 1, understanding participatory research and development, looks at typologies and concepts (such as indigenous knowledge, property rights, monitoring and evaluation), approaches, participatory technology development and natural resource management. Volume 2, enabling participatory research and development, looks at capacity building, networking and partnerships, scaling up and institutionalisation. Volume 3, doing participatory research and development, looks at technology development, strengthening local organisations and multi-stakeholder based natural resource management.

National Agricultural Extension Services are often criticised for not doing enough, not doing what they do well enough, or not being relevant. Participatory approaches can improve them by making them more demand driven and accountable. In this paper the author describes how management and field staff of the Department of Extension and Engineering Servicesin Ohangwena, a region of Namibia, have improved the efficiency and responsiveness of the services they offer by making them more participatory. The paper begins by looking at OhangwenaÆs organisational culture, examining the changes in approaches and how staff have reacted to them, with younger staff generally being more willing and able to take new ways of working on board. It then goes on to describe management innovations such as: planning and budgeting whereby farmers groups are involved in the process, and monitoring and evaluation for which the management team decided, with the help of technicians and farmers, to monitor themselves. It also looks at training, interaction with stakeholders and publicity. The paper concludes that although these types of services are seen as highly bureaucratic, they can change their managerial style to be more participatory, flexible, effective and responsive thereby empowering farmers and assisting rural communities in sustaining their livelihoods.